Father’s Day: From the Porch…. (Part 1)

So this past weekend, we (like the rest of the world) celebrated Father’s Day! On Saturday I planned a day of hanging out with my husband Bryon. We like LOVEEE hanging out together especially when we are kid free. Bryon planned a super amazing Mother’s Day (which I should probably blog about), so I was determined to do the same. Welp, last minute plans changed. We had a pretty busy morning with the boys and basketball, so we didn’t start our date until 6pm.

The first stop on my date was the Larchmere Porchfest, which I absolutely love attending! It was a hot day, so like many things I do with my husband, I don’t tell him what we are doing or where we are going I just take him. I can’t give him the opportunity to say no. I’m the person that has to push him to just try new things. On a hot summer day, I couldn’t imagine he would agree in advance to doing a lot of walking.

Well we arrived, and unlike past years, the streets weren’t completely blocked off, so he got a chance to drive through and see what exactly we were about to do. As always, there were people everyone and limited parking. We parked on the other side of Larchmere towards Kemper and walked over. Let me rewind, for those who aren’t award, PorchFest is an annual FREE event, where they have 30 bands on 30 porches! It’s a very cool concept, especially for where it’s located.

The restaurants look like houses and it’s just a really cool place to walk around and explore. Tons of small shops, restaurants and bars- and my favorite all locally owned businesses. We went to too many places to name, but I have to mention the steak at Batuqui was amazing! That was out first stop for drinks which were also amazing! We had the Strawberry and Passion Fruit Caipiroskas (pictured above). We started int he backyard which had tons of table but they only accepted cash outside, so we walked in, ordered our drinks and then drank them on the porch.

From there we walked a little further down the street. Outdoors, we probably spent the most time at Felice’s because it was the best location to easily get drinks and enjoy them outside. I was confused if you could have beer and wine while walking the streets, but I was informed if it was in a cup that we would be okay. At Felice’s, you could ask for plastic cups.  It was also directly across from the porch where Carlos Jones (the headliner band) was performing. Beers were only $3 and the food was all under $10. We shared a half slab of ribs for like $7. They were really good and I made a mental note to come back for dinner. This is definitely a cute option for a patio during the summer, if you are looking to enjoy the outdoors in Cleveland.

The original plan was to walk around until 8 and then head over to a cigar lounge we had never been to on the west side but that didn’t happen. We ran into my sister and then a few cousins and basically decided to hangout with them. We decided to stop in the closes bar for a few drinks and that happen to be the Academy Tavern. I had been here once before after a dinner date, just for drinks. It’s a very small family owned bar with cheap drinks, inexpensive food, and great service. It’s the type of place where the owner walks over and ask are you enjoying your meal and where are you from.

The place was crazy packed inside, with no walking room but some how we got lucky and  there was one table open with enough space for our party of 7. The backyard had a band playing and another 100 people at least listening. It was a cool scene, but we decided to ultimately stay inside. The bar was so crowded I almost gave up on ordering. After while, I made eye contact with the bartender and ended up ordering 7 shots for only $30. That deal was worth the wait. Not to mention while waiting I ran into a few Shaker friends that i hadn’t seen in ages! Isaac Stout (who was on MTV’s the Real World and who graduated with me in 2004) and Jamie Abbot and Jon Binstock, both class of 2003 at Shaker. We enjoyed our drinks and then left.

All in all, Porchfest  was a great experience. If you haven’t gone I encourage you try in 2018. It is family friendly, but I’ve never taken my kids. My reason being, they’d probably complain of the heat and walking after so long, and I’d have to keep finding clean bathrooms and or changing diapers and it seems like it would be more of a hassle, for me. I also like to have a few drinks and walk around at this event, and I don’t feel like I would be able to do both. I’ve seen people do it, I just don’t have that desire to try. I could possibly consider taking the kids for a few hours, dropping them off and coming back but that wouldn’t make much sense to me, not to mention there’s just so many people, I’m always scared when going through large crowds with my kids. I didn’t even see activities for kids, but I also wasn’t looking so someone correct me if I’m wrong.

Anywho, that’s just my perspective. Another year, another great event in Cleveland…. now on to Part 2 of Father’s Day!